


Closing Window

by hope_s



Series: Beautiful Trauma [8]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Almost smut, Cigarettes, Clothing, Developing Relationship, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Film Timeline, Flirting, Fluff, Heist Preparations, Internal Monologue, Light Angst, Missing Scene, Nonsexual Nudity, POV Lou, Pining, Pre-Heist, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 04:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hope_s/pseuds/hope_s
Summary: It's the night before the Jewelry Heist of the Century, but Lou isn't worried about that.She's worried about what happens /after/. When the job is done - when every loose end is tied - will she still have Debbie in her arms?It's the end of this chapter of their lives, she knows that. But she hopes that a closing window can mean the opening of a door...





	Closing Window

**Author's Note:**

> P!nk: Beautiful Trauma  
(2017)  
Track 10 - Better Life
> 
> ...
> 
> But I've been up late nights  
Staring at the street lights  
All the cigarette smoke, can't escape a closing window  
And my head's like "what happened to you, it's alright"  
Baby, it's not alright  
What if we're a closing window
> 
> But I can't shake the feeling  
That you picture a better life, better wife, better nights, better high  
I can't shake the feeling (I can't shake the feeling)  
Do you picture a better life?
> 
> I found myself up late feeling kinda jealous  
Looking at the bullshit, other people’s wellness  
And it's got me thinking  
It's just not you  
I've been all night looking in the eyes of my baby  
Right in front of me, what a gift so amazing  
Oh and that's what's true
> 
> But I stay up late night  
Screaming at the street lights  
All the cigarette smoke, filling up these hopeless lungs  
Oh, and my head's like "what happened to you, it's alright"  
Baby, It's not alright  
I feel like a closing window
> 
> ...
> 
> (May 2018)

“Do I get to see your dress?”

“Of course,” Debbie said, looking up from massaging lotion onto her legs.

“Before tomorrow tonight?” Lou asked with a grin, making no effort to hide the way her eyes traveled over Debbie’s legs to where they disappeared under the hem of the towel she had tucked around herself.

Debbie shot her a side-long glance and winked. “Only if I get to see yours,” Debbie replied.

Lou leaned more heavily into the doorframe of her (their?) en suite bathroom and laughed softly. “Of course,” she said, “it’s a job, not a wedding, Debs.”

Debbie blushed but said nothing, eyes fixed on the bottle of lotion as she squirted some into her hand. Lou grinned somewhat sheepishly and noticed that her own cheeks were also slightly pink as she walked to the sink and looked in the mirror. Lou splashed cold water on her face, and when she looked up, Debbie had removed her towel and was spreading lotion across her arms and chest. Lou felt a buzzing thrill run through her body, accompanied by something less tangible. It was almost painfully intimate to watch Debbie caring for herself, working her fingers over her own skin carefully and self-indulgently. Debbie winced as her fingers slipped across the scar under the left breast, and Lou grimaced.

“Are you ready for tomorrow, baby?” Debbie asked a few minutes later, coming to stand next to Lou at the sink and picking up her toothbrush. Lou realized she had been standing motionless, watching Debbie so attentively that she had completely forgotten about her own routine. She started slightly, and Debbie shot her a knowing look that was almost a challenge.

Lou shook herself. “Yeah,” she said, taking the toothpaste Debbie handed her. “Ready as ever.”

“That’s my girl,” Debbie said around her toothbrush. Her voice was hearty and jocular, but Lou caught a fondness in the words nevertheless.

Lou winked. This easy, domestic routine felt the same as it always had. And yet…Lou spit toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her mouth, thinking hard. “What happens next, Debs?” she asked finally.

Debbie shrugged and mumbled something incomprehensible through a mouthful of toothpaste. Lou raised her eyebrows, which prompted Debbie to roll her eyes and spit her toothpaste into the sink. When she straightened up, she was glaring at Lou in mock exasperation. “Why do you always ask questions when my mouth is full?”

Lou smirked. “Don’t change the subject.” She leaned against the sink and waited.

Debbie sighed and stepped into the space between Lou’s legs, pressing close with her hands fiddling with the fabric of Lou’s robe. “We’ll have to deal with John Frazier, we’ll have to make sure the jewels are sold and that the money is connected to Claude, we have to—”

“And after _that_?” Lou asked quietly, tucking a strand of hair behind Debbie’s ear and searching the uncertainties written across Debbie’s face.

“I…” Debbie’s fingers continued to run over Lou’s chest, but her voice faltered. “I don’t know.”

Lou furrowed her brow. Was she asking the impossible? Debbie Ocean wasn’t somebody who thought about settling down. Debbie Ocean wasn’t someone who took breaks. One job led to the next, and so on and so forth – hot and fast until Debbie burnt out. That’s how it had always been, and even _this _Debbie – mature, refined, calculating – was still a career criminal, even if she made jokes about proposals and called Lou her girl.

“You okay, baby?” Debbie finally asked after Lou had been silent for many long seconds.

Lou cleared her throat and pulled Debbie closer to her body, tucking her chin onto her shoulder. “I…I like working with you, Jailbird.”

Debbie hummed an acknowledgement of the words, the _same _words she had spoken to Lou after their very first job…and the same words that Debbie had said when Lou first told her she was leaving ten years ago. Both times it had been Debbie’s way of asking Lou to stay – Lou knew that. This time, the roles were reversed, and Lou was desperately trying to keep herself from falling to her knees to beg Debbie: _Stay with me._

“I have to wait until this job is over,” Debbie said quietly.

“But what are you waiting _for_, Debs?” Lou asked, her voice muffled in Debbie’s neck.

“I’m not sure,” Debbie replied immediately, as though she had been waiting for Lou to ask. “I…that’s the thing, I don’t _know_. I don’t have any plans. I…” she trailed off and nuzzled Lou’s neck.

“That’s…not like you,” Lou noted.

“I can’t explain it yet, alright? I…don’t even understand it myself. I don’t know what I want yet,” Debbie’s voice was slightly frantic, and Lou could tell this was new territory for her. Lou felt her take several deep breaths before she spoke again. “What about you, Lou?” Her voice was almost inaudibly quiet. “What are you doing after…after everything’s done?” Lou thought it might just be her imagination, but she caught a tremor in Debbie’s voice. She sounded almost afraid, just as she had when they were discussing the framing of Claude Becker.

Lou knew what she wanted, knew that after the Gala and the finishing touches, after getting the money, after _finally _having enough money to do something just for herself… “I want to bike the California coast,” she said finally. Her voice shook a little, afraid that Debbie would hear something darker in her words: _I’m leaving you again_. It wasn’t Lou’s intention, but she knew the implication was there nonetheless. Debbie was silent. Lou took another deep breath. “…And I want you to come with me,” she said at last.

Debbie pulled her face out of Lou’s neck but didn’t loosen her grip on the front of Lou’s robe. In fact, her knuckles went white as she clutched at the fabric even more tightly. “_What_, Lou? Are you serious?” Her eyes showed raw surprise.

Lou smiled softly. “Yeah, Jailbird. I want you to come…I…I’ve always wanted to do that trip, and it would be nice to have someone…to have _you_…along for the ride.”

Debbie’s expression softened from shock to understanding and then to something that Lou couldn’t quite put her finger on – it was something similar to the face Debbie made when she knew something Lou didn’t. It made Lou anxious and excited in equal measure. “Baby…” Debbie said finally, stroking her thumbs along Lou’s sternum. “Baby, I think you need to go on your own. I think…I think we all deserve our own _personal _victory laps.”

Lou felt a pang of disappointment at Debbie’s refusal accompanied by a thrill of happiness that the idea of her leaving wasn’t sending Debbie running in the opposite direction. No, she was still here, in Lou’s arms. “I _want _you to come, Debs…just _know _that, okay? This isn’t like last time. I…I _promise._”

“I know.” Debbie leaned forward and whispered the words against Lou’s lips. Lou kissed her, slow and soft, and Debbie was warm and solid against her.

After a minute or so, Lou pulled away with another question rising in her chest. “So, what’s _yours_, Debbie?”

“My what?” Debbie asked, cocking her head curiously.

“Your victory lap.”

“Oh,” Debbie said. She looked suddenly shy, watching her own fingers moving over Lou’s chest once more. “Danny,” she said quietly and firmly after a long moment.

Lou sucked in her breath, unable to hide her skepticism and surprise.

“I’m serious, Lou,” Debbie said, looking up at her determinedly.

“I know you are, but again, what are you waiting _for_, Debs? What are you expecting?”

Debbie shrugged. “Who can say?”

Lou nodded slowly. “Fair point.”

Debbie smiled gratefully at Lou’s acceptance of her words.

“You can stay here,” Lou added, “in the loft…while I’m gone. If you want.”

“Really?” Debbie asked, eyes twinkling.

“Yeah,” Lou said, smiling. “Yeah, of course. It’d be nice to know that someone’s looking after it.”

“How…?” Debbie started to ask, but then stopped herself.

“You can ask me, honey,” Lou encouraged her.

Debbie sighed. “How long will you be gone?”

Lou studied her face for a long moment. “I don’t know,” she replied finally, “Is that okay?”

Debbie bit her lip, looking both nervous and satisfied. “Yeah, baby. Of course, that’s okay.” 

“Do you trust me?” Lou murmured in Debbie’s ear. 

“Oh, baby, I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted myself,” Debbie said reassuringly, melting into Lou’s embrace once more.

**

“It suits you,” Debbie said, appraising the Armani jumpsuit with the gaze of a professional.

“I think it will, yes,” Lou agreed. They were sitting next to each other on the edge of Lou’s bed with out of their outfits for tomorrow night’s events hanging in front of them from the top of the sliding closet doors.

“Green isn’t usually your color,” Debbie observed.

“No.” Lou smiled. “But tomorrow isn’t about being _me_.”

“Isn’t it?” Debbie asked with a wink.

“Well, you know what I mean,” Lou said, a laugh in her voice. “That’s _your _job tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Being _you_, being noticed – a solid alibi, right?” Lou gestured towards Debbie’s black and gold dress. The embroidery was intricate and extensive: seashells, waves, and anchors interlaced over the fabric – _ocean _motives that would describe its wearer perfectly even behind a fake name and a wig.

Debbie smiled proudly. “It better be.”

Lou squeezed her hand. “It _will _be.” They were silent for a few minutes, each of them running through their steps in tomorrow’s plan. Finally, Lou broke the silence. “Have you seen anyone else’s?”

Debbie shrugged. “Constance and Nine Ball have seen them. They’re the ones who need to know, the ones who need to be able to pick the rest of us out of the crowd. Tammy showed me all of them a while back, but I wasn’t really paying attention. The information wasn’t worth being retained.”

Lou grinned. “Ever the calculating mastermind, aren’t you?”

“Always,” Debbie said, flopping backward onto the mattress. “I like yours, though, and I wanted to see it for selfish reasons not _job_ reasons, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Lou said with a snort of laughter, lying down next to Debbie and stroking the side of her face. “We should sleep, Debs,” she said after a minute. “Big day tomorrow.”

“The biggest, in fact,” Debbie agreed. She yawned and sat up once more, rubbing her hands down her arms over the fabric of her floral silk robe.

“You nervous?” Lou asked, genuinely curious, still lying sprawled on the bed.

Debbie scoffed. “Never.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked over her shoulder at Lou.

Lou laughed. “Me neither.”

And it was true, at least as far as the job was concerned. She trusted Debbie – trusted the rest of the team almost as much, which was _really _saying something in this line of work. She knew the plan down to the last second. She could almost taste the sweetness that tomorrow night would bring. But Lou _was _nervous. Debbie was yawning every few seconds as they crawled into bed, and she fell asleep hard and fast with Lou curled around her. Lou propped herself up on her right elbow and watched Debbie sleep, a lump growing quickly in her throat.

Was she letting herself hope for the impossible? Would Debbie really be here when she got back from California, or would she vanish without a trace in search of Danny and a new adventure? A twinge in the pit of Lou’s stomach reminded her that she herself had left before. Debbie didn’t owe it to her to stay, and though the last two months since Debbie’s release had been incredible, she could see a tragic justice in Debbie leaving her this time. Still, that wouldn’t be like Debbie at all. Debbie was New York, and New York was Debbie – intertwined and inseparable.

_Tell her before you go_, a voice in Lou’s head advised. _Tell her you love her _before _you go_.

_No,_ Lou replied to the voice, burying her face in Debbie’s sweet-smelling hair. _Not yet. Not yet. I can’t say it and then get on the bike and drive away. I can’t. She deserves better. She deserves all I can give her. She deserves the _world.

_You love each other_, the voice cautioned with a tone of clear frustration. It was incredible how her own mind could argue with itself with such ease, speaking vicious truths on both sides.

_I _need _that trip, _Lou said to the voice. _If Debbie won’t come, I’ll have to wait. It won’t be a long trip. Should I tell her that? Should I set a date? Should I call her every day? Should I—?” _

_You _love _each other. _Lou knew it was true. She knew that the look in Debbie’s eyes matched the light in her own. She had known it since she went to visit Debbie in prison three years ago, and the way Debbie had melted into her on their first night back together…well, there really wasn’t any other explanation. Debbie loved her. Whether or not Debbie would ever realize it – let alone really _admit _it to herself – well, that was the _real _question. Lou didn’t think she could bear saying the words if Debbie wasn’t able to say them back. Not yet. But maybe after California it wouldn’t matter anymore. Maybe after California she would be able to say them without needing anything from Debbie except her touch and her glances that seemed to contain whole universes of love and affection.

Lou settled her head back on the pillow and tugged Debbie even closer. _Oh, Debbie. _She smelled like her almond-scented shampoo and like the coconut lotion she had used earlier. She smelled like cucumber make-up remover and the faintest hint of Lou’s Chanel perfume. She smelled like herself, like home – better than money, better than California, better than a thousand jobs in a thousand cities.

_Please_, Lou thought desperately, _let me be enough for you, _my _Jailbird. Let me be what you want, my sweet, sweet girl. Ask me to be your princess, Debbie Ocean, like you said you would. One day. Ask me. I’ll say yes, Debs. You _know_ that. Deep down, you know that. You’ll figure it out. Please. Please, _please_ figure it out. There’s nothing better than this. Nothing. We deserve each other, you know? Always. _

Lou wasn’t sure if she said the words only inside her head, or whether she whispered them into Debbie’s sleeping, unknowing ear. She knew that hot tears fell from her eyes, and that even though she was far too warm, she couldn’t bring herself to roll away from Debbie’s solid form. Eventually, Lou slept, but she blinked her eyes open every few hours because her pounding heart told her to wake up, to savor this quiet closeness. 

When the grey light of early dawn filtered through the thin curtains, Lou uncurled herself at last from Debbie’s body and rolled over. She tugged her cigarettes and lighter from the drawer of her bedside table and wrapped her old tartan robe around her shoulders. She thought about tiptoeing through the house and outside, but the peacefulness of Debbie’s features told her to stay here. She cracked the window open as quietly as she could and sprawled in the sagging armchair between the window and Debbie’s side of the bed, smelling rain in the cool breeze that blew gently into the room. Lou smoked a single, leisurely cigarette, only tearing her eyes from Debbie’s face to blow smoke out into the foggy air.

“I thought you would’ve quit by now.” Lou jumped and realized that she had been so distracted by watching the steady rise and fall of Debbie’s chest that she had failed to notice that her eyes had blinked open.

“I’m _trying _to quit,” Lou said defensively, flicking her cigarette butt out of the window and shutting the pane tightly against the chill morning air.

Debbie hummed a soft laugh into the pillow, burying her face briefly before looking back at Lou teasingly. “Were you watching me sleep?” she asked. 

Lou twirled her lighter in her fingers and looked out at the steel-grey waters of the bay below. “No,” she said.

Debbie laughed into her pillow. “_God_, for a con, you’re a _terrible _liar.”

Lou smiled in spite of herself. “Only to _you_.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Debbie said, sitting up and stretching. Lou felt the heat rise in her cheeks as the sheet fell away from Debbie’s bare chest and draped across her hips. Debbie tilted her head and leaned back on her forearms. Lou swallowed hard and tried desperately to look at anything else. Debbie threw her head back and laughed.

“Shut _up,_” Lou said, rolling her eyes, though she was grinning, too.

“I didn’t _say _anything,” Debbie said, in mock defense.

Lou groaned. “Yeah, but you…” She gestured at Debbie vaguely. “…you’re…”

“I’m _what_?” Debbie prompted, sweeping her hair over one shoulder and bending her left leg so the sheets shifted around her hips to reveal the edge of her lacy underwear.

Lou practically growled as she clamored awkwardly out of the arm chair and threw herself onto the bed to kneel over Debbie, one knee pressed between her thighs. Debbie gasped at the sudden pressure, and Lou smiled smugly before dipping her head to kiss her.

“We don’t…” Debbie gasped, arching into Lou. “We don’t….have time…” she moaned as Lou licked her neck. “We don’t have time for this, baby.” She pulled Lou’s head away from her neck and held her face between her palms, caressing her cheekbones.

“We can be fast,” Lou said weakly, though she knew Debbie was right.

“I think the anticipation might be more fun,” Debbie murmured, still stroking Lou’s face. She leaned upward so her lips brushed Lou’s ear. “I’ll be wet for you all day,” she whispered.

Lou let her forehead fall forward into Debbie’s. “Aroused _and _pulling off the biggest job of our lives?” Lou said. “Sounds like the Debbie Ocean I always knew you would become.”

“Just imagine me…” Debbie kissed Lou’s left cheek. “…in that dress…” Debbie tilted her head towards the black and gold dress as she kissed Lou’s right cheek. “…_dripping _for you all day, baby.”

“_F…fuck_,” Lou stammered, feeling heat pool between her thighs. “_Fuck_ you, Debbie.”

“Later, baby,” Debbie said, bending her leg to press her thigh against Lou’s arousal. Lou groaned. “Later,” Debbie murmured again. “We have some business to take care of first.”

_Oh, Debbie_, Lou thought as she kissed her hard and briefly before pulling them both out of the bed. _Later, forever, _when_ever – I’m yours. _They moved around each other through the comfortable, simple patterns of their morning routines, each dressing in head-to-toe black in coordination with the rest of the team. Lou straightened the black beanie on Debbie’s head fondly, and Debbie held out Lou’s leather jacket for her to slip on over her turtleneck. Ready at last, Lou found it difficult to release her hold on Debbie, passing her hands up and down her arms as Debbie’s thumbs rubbed circles against her hipbones.

“Are we ready, honey?” Lou asked leaning in to place a soft and _loving _kiss to the corner of Debbie’s mouth.

Debbie sighed and her eyelids fluttered at the brush of Lou’s lips against her skin. “We’re ready, baby,” she replied, squaring her shoulders and squeezing Lou’s hips. “We’re ready.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the song with all the lyrics:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Bsab-MAIo
> 
> ***
> 
> SERIES NOTE:
> 
> There will be 13 fics in this series, so please plase subscribe to/bookmark the series in addition to the individual fics. I'm posting the stories chronologically as they fall in Debbie and Lou's timeline, rather than in the track order from the album. New ones will be posted every Friday. There will be pre-canon, film timeline, and post-canon stuff, and it all fits with my Loubbie headcanon found in my other non-AU works. I can ONE HUNDRED PERCENT PROMISE that the series will end happily. 
> 
> ***
> 
> Find me on Tumblr @estel-of-irysi, and feel to ask questions if that's your thing. :)
> 
> <3 <3 <3 to go_get_your_top_hat, as always. All this domestic fluff is thanks to her because we're soft af. 
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day! Seriously. It's amazing. Thanks for reading! 
> 
> :)


End file.
